Strong racial disparities exist among pretrial detention populations in the United States

Share of pretrial detention and U.S. populations by race in 2002

Bar chart showing strong racial disparities in the pretrial detention population in 2002, with people of color making up 69 percent of the pretrial detention population but only 32 percent of the total U.S. population.

Hover over or click to see values.

The total percentage of the U.S. population does not equal 100 percent due to rounding discrepancies in the data cited.

Chart: Center for American Progress Source: Wendy Sawyer, “How race impacts who is detained pretrial,” Prison Policy Initiative, October 9, 2019, available at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2019/10/09/pretrial_race/.